Blaise Pascal

Blaise Pascal (19 June 1623-19 August 1662) was a French mathematician and theologist who wrote in defense of the scientific method and invented the first calculator, the probability theory, and the roulette machine (the "perpetual motion machine").

Biography
Blaise Pascal was born in Clermont-Ferrand, France on 19 June 1623, and he was educated by his father, a tax collector in Rouen. Pascal's early studies included fluids, pressure, and vacuum, and he built 20 "Pascaline calculators", the first mechanical calculator. Pascal also accidentally invented the roulette machine with his "perpetual motion machine", and he also developed the probability theory. His inventions and discoveries helped to develop the future of geometry, physics, and computer science, and Pascal would later become a theologian, supporting the Jansenism school of Catholicism. He died in 1662 at the age of 39 from a stomach tumor and tuberculosis.